Looking for Laptop Suggestions

[Flown]

Hello, everyone!

My old Acer Predator laptop is falling apart after many years of regular usage, and I am looking to replace it soon.I'm not sure if I want to buy this brand again as the quality is not great. For example, the monitor is quite flimsy (I've had to duct tape it together so it doesn't splay apart).

I am looking for suggestions for a new laptop that meet the following criteria:
1) Not too heavy/bulky--I am partially disabled and have a hard time with mobility at times
2) Needs to have processing power for both photo editing (in Adobe Photoshop) and casual online gaming. Decent internal fans to combat overheating would be a bonus as well.
3) Decent drive space (500GB+) or the ability to add a second hard drive.

I'm not the most tech-savvy, and I'm hoping someone here might know about newer/recent models on the market!

 

[Gerontius]

Following. I also need a laptop.

Acers tend to fall apart a lot. My current laptop just finished falling to bits after the hinge gave out. I got a secondhand iPad and a case with a small keyboard on it for less than the cost of parts to fix the Acer, but of course it's probably not specced for the uses you need.

About drive space: most laptops can be opened up so you can install a 1 TB SSD. Or bigger. I had an Hewlett Packard business laptop someone did that to and it was a good one, until it finally started crumbling like all HP computer cases do...and overheating constantly trying to run Microsoft Word.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I got ASUS, cheap works pretty good. wife uses a tablet desk top in my home office.

 

[maycontainthunder]

Some of the more recent Intel i5 cpu's were hex core with hyperthreading (they show up as a 12 core cpu in the monitoring software) so good for the less demanding games. RAM-wise have a look at the specs because some machines are upgradable with many starting with 8gb ram. Hard drives can always be upgraded and reinstalling Wind'ohs is relatively painless.

Buuut it is all down to budget. The absolute minimum you should consider is quad core with hyperthreading. Dual cores tend to be of the mindset that next week will do!

Oh, and to save yourself a few bucks use Openoffice software which is free.

 

[Sylas]

I'm not a laptop kind of person but know a bit about computers.

I think you would need to answer a few questions before.

Most important, what's your price range?

Do you know what's the exact model of your current laptop (to know screen size and weight for comparison)?

What do you consider "casual online gaming"? what specific games do you play or would like to play to know whether a particular laptop would work with them.

Regarding drive space, basically all new laptops come with SSDs which are a faster type of drive (move files around faster, doing stuff generally feels more responsive) but are more expensive GB per GB than old hard drives.

If price is not a big concern or any hassle is a concern then you just get a laptop with a big SSD and be done with it. But if a lot of drive space will be used for mostly storage of stuff you won't be actively using constantly then maybe a laptop with a smaller SSD would be best, for the stuff you do use constantly, and whenever you need it you can just buy an external hard drive of the old type that you can just easily plug to the laptop whenever you want to put in or take out any files from it, they are very cheap but they're slower so not ideal if these are files you're going to be using constantly, again more just of an external add-on for extra, cheap storage.

Oh and by photo editing you mean just images and not video, right? since those two are very different in how demanding they are for a computer.

 

[Flown]

@Sylas
I'm not a laptop kind of person but know a bit about computers.

If I was able to sit up for long periods of time without pain and dizziness, I would definitely opt for a normal PC setup. However, this is not the case, so I have had to make do with laptops for the past decade.

I think you would need to answer a few questions before.

Most important, what's your price range?

Moderately priced. I definitely don't want the cheapest model, but I also don't want to break the bank. A maximum of $2000 USD

Do you know what's the exact model of your current laptop (to know screen size and weight for comparison)?
I currently have a Predator G3-571 Laptop. I think the screen size is is 15.6". Weight is 2.7kg/5.95lbs (honestly a bit too heavy for me at times, but I have been managing)

What do you consider "casual online gaming"? what specific games do you play or would like to play to know whether a particular laptop would work with them.

Due to health issues/energy levels I'm not really a consistent online gamer or raid participant. I mostly play for full environmental immersion (to detach from pain, stress, etc). I occasionally log on to MMORPGs (Guild Wars 2, Black Desert Online, FFXIV, etc) and sometimes enjoy a good hack-and-slash (like Path of Exile or Grim Dawn). Sometimes I play on Nova Ragnarok private servers if I want something nostalgic.


Oh and by photo editing you mean just images and not video, right? since those two are very different in how demanding they are for a computer.
Correct. At most, I would be doing some photo stacking.

 

[Flown]

Some of the more recent Intel i5 cpu's were hex core with hyperthreading (they show up as a 12 core cpu in the monitoring software) so good for the less demanding games. RAM-wise have a look at the specs because some machines are upgradable with many starting with 8gb ram. Hard drives can always be upgraded and reinstalling Wind'ohs is relatively painless.

Buuut it is all down to budget. The absolute minimum you should consider is quad core with hyperthreading. Dual cores tend to be of the mindset that next week will do!

Oh, and to save yourself a few bucks use Openoffice software which is free.

I'm looking to stay below $2000 USD. Thank you so much for the info!

 

[maycontainthunder]

I'm looking to stay below $2000 USD. Thank you so much for the info!

With that budget you're looking at machines with an octa core cpu with hyperthreading (show up as 16 cores), 16gb ram and Nvidia graphics (as opposed to basic on board kinds) so better for gaming.

Sorry this one is in the UK but it gives you an idea of what you could get for a great deal less than budget; https://www.currys.co.uk/products/l...top-amd-ryzen-7-512-gb-ssd-grey-10233246.html works out to $1216ish at current exchange rates.

Unfortunately not being in the US I don't know what retailers you have over there.

One little warning; DON'T buy one with Wind'ohs 11 already on it. There are missing features that mean it is annoying to use.

 

[Judge]

One thing for sure, wanting specs that meet or exceed your existing laptop instantly translate into a relatively powerful Windows gaming laptop. Requiring a powerful cpu and video gpu. Both with their own cooling systems. -Expensive.

Which narrows down to a Windows laptop, though a MacBook Pro would probably be a better choice relative to overall longevity based on the least thermodynamic concerns with their recent M1 cpu. Though it might be a better option to wait to see what their M2 cpu will entail. Avoiding the hot mess of Windows 11 altogether. Though as the months roll by, Microsoft will probably address most of the problems plaguing Windows 11. But in the meantime, anyone stuck with that OS becomes a free beta tester for Microsoft.

One other thing to consider is the possibility of the laptop market opening up to selling them with versions of Linux installed. I'm posting this at the moment using Linux Mint 20.2. It renders my 23-year old Photoshop 5.5 better than Windows 10.

Otherwise when it comes to the top-rated gaming laptops, most articles mention the same manufacturers- Asus and Lenovo.

The worst issue in this scenario is your timing, given the chip shortage, pandemic, cryptocurrency miners, Windows 11 and a soaring inflation rate. Possibly forcing you to expand your $2000 price threshold. While I was contemplating building a new more powerful desktop computer, I find the present circumstances utterly stifling, especially given the absurd prices of stand-alone video cards. Not sure if their prices are going to drop much at all, if ever. Waiting to see if newcomer Intel will follow suit, or break this "logjam of supply and demand".

 

[ChrisHerlihy]

It's not that simple to delete files from your hard drive. Emptying the recycle bin doesn't really help. If the company wants to find your files, they will definitelly do that.

 

[Judge]

It's not that simple to delete files from your hard drive. Emptying the recycle bin doesn't really help. If the company wants to find your files, they will definitelly do that.

Most anyone who uses a data wipe utility set to US Department of Defense 5520.22-M standards can successfully wipe files off their hard drive if they so desire. To my knowledge it remains an industry standard. Comes in handy if you want to wipe an entire hard drive clean.